A former Vermont National Guard recruit says she was sexually harassed while in basic training — and that the military retaliated against her and her friends when they came forward internally.
Mirra Macy of Brattleboro, a staffer on Democrat Brenda Siegel’s gubernatorial campaign, made her allegations on the steps of the Vermont Statehouse on Thursday morning. Siegel, too, delivered brief remarks and pledged that, if she were elected, she would seek to enact legislation similar to a new Maine law addressing sexual misconduct in the Maine National Guard.
But she also suggested she hoped her opponent, Republican Gov. Phil Scott, who is heavily favored to win, was listening as well.
“Mirra asked me to do this today because she wants to stop this — regardless of who is governor,” Siegel said. “There must be a plan.”
Macy said she arrived in Fort Benning, Georgia, on Nov. 16, 2021, for basic training as a 19-year-old recruit with just three other women in her company, alone among roughly 160 men.
“I was shocked to know that it was just us,” she said.
The following January, Macy returned from winter break and, alongside two other female trainees, told leadership at Fort Benning they could not train alongside men who had “sexually harassed me, sexually assaulted one of my friends and bullied my friend for her looks and sexual orientation,” Macy recalled.
Macy alleges she and the other two women were essentially kept prisoner in their barracks for months after they made their disclosures — unable to go home, unable to read anything but “religious books” and made to clean their bunks over and over again. The three could not even dine alongside their company and instead had to wait until everyone else was done eating before they could eat.
She was also punished for wanting to give her parents updates on her case, Macy said.
“I was told if I kept abusing the designated time on Sunday — which was for 15 minutes, but sometimes we got no calls at all — that we were told that would add to my stay and prolong my paperwork,” she said. Macy finally returned home on March 23, she said.
At one point, her journal was confiscated for a week, she said, and returned to her with certain pages containing stories she assumed the military “did not want us to tell” ripped out.
“I could not get those back,” she said of the notebook’s missing pages. “But they are in my memory — so I do remember them.”
After the women lodged their initial complaint, Macy said, she was interviewed by an investigating officer in February, a process that left her feeling like her allegation would not be taken seriously.
“Within a week, the investigating officer came back with my story completely wrong. And I had to tell it again,” she said. Macy said she still hasn’t heard back about the results of the investigation, but that the men she and the other two women accused of wrongdoing are still in the military — one deployed, two others at a base in Texas.
“They graduated. We didn’t. And they get to live out the dream that I wanted,” said Macy, who said she has been honorably discharged.
Vermont Guard spokesperson Mikel Arcovitch declined to comment on Macy’s individual case, but said in an interview Thursday that, “for lack of a better word,” a recruit in basic training was “not really our jurisdiction.”
“They don’t fall under the command and control of the Vermont National Guard or the National Guard in general. They’re under Title 10 borders if they’re at basic training,” he said, referring to the federal statutes governing the U.S. military.
Arcovitch added that the National Guard had liaisons at basic training stations that provided support to soldiers in training, and systems that soldiers can use to connect with their home states. He provided phone numbers for the Fort Benning station, but VTDigger did not immediately receive a response.
Siegel alluded to Macy’s story during a VTDigger debate late last month, although the candidate did not name the staffer at the time.
Asked at the debate what should be done to address reports of misconduct in the Guard, Scott said he was working with Knight to reform the organization’s culture. “The good news is, if there is any good news, is that people are coming forward,” Scott said. “And we need to track these down and we need to eliminate this from the National Guard in its entirety.”
Macy was also in the audience at that event and said Thursday she had been disappointed by Scott’s response to questions on the subject.
“It seemed like he didn’t even know anything that was happening. Because if he did, something would have changed a year ago, two years ago, or three years ago. And it hasn’t,” she said.
Macy also faulted the governor for not attending a hearing held by lawmakers in April that reviewed the Guard’s annual report on sexual harassment and assault. (Jason Maulucci, Scott’s press secretary, said the governor had been briefed on the hearing by staff and Knight himself.)
VTDigger has not had the opportunity to independently corroborate Macy’s story. But it has reported extensively about prior accusations of abuse, harassment and retaliation in the Guard.
In 2018, VTDigger published a seven-part series focused on such misconduct, and the following January Scott requested a top-to-bottom review of the Guard’s policies. Upon taking leadership of the Vermont Guard in March of 2019, Adjutant General Gregory Knight pledged to do better by female Guard members. In an interview with VTDigger later that year, he promised to work toward “incremental change sustained over time.”
An investigation commissioned by Knight in 2021 documented a “good old boy” culture within the Guard, and just last month, VTDigger reported on a star soldier under investigation for sexual misconduct.
In a follow-up interview with VTDigger, Macy emphasized how alone she and the two other women had felt.
“I was a woman. I was a trainee. And I was powerless in my position down there,” she said. But now that she was out of the Guard, Macy said that she had “literally nothing to lose.”
“People who are still in and have earned the rank and title can lose that rank and title if they speak up. It’s happened before and it will keep happening,” she said.
Maulucci said the governor had reached out to the Guard to discuss the matter after Siegel alluded to Macy’s story during VTDigger’s debate. Maulucci said the governor’s office could not comment on individual cases but said Scott “takes these matters very seriously.”
“He believes nobody — especially those seeking to serve their nation or state — should have to endure harassment of any kind. In the past few years, under General Knight and with the support of the Governor, the National Guard has taken action to improve its systems and accountability — though there is clearly still work to do,” Maulucci said.
He added that “since 2019, the Guard’s policies have been updated significantly to increase accountability and make the reporting process easier for victims,” and that victims had increased access to counseling and support. Investigators meet regularly to review cases, he said.
Asked if the governor would be proposing any new oversight mechanisms, Maulucci replied that Scott believes Knight’s efforts at reform “have been beneficial and need to be given time,” although he added that Scott was “always willing to consider proposals.”
